Irvine mayor asks council to contribute to Dorner reward

March 15, 2013|By Rhea Mahbubani

Irvine Mayor Steven S. Choi called on his city to contribute $100,000 to a multi-agency reward established during the manhunt for Christopher Dorner, who is presumed to have killed four people on a Southern California rampage that began in Irvine.

Labeling the agenda item a "call to action," Choi said during Tuesday's City Council meeting, "Our participation in funding the reward money, which I am making as a formal suggestion tonight for the first time, is a logical extension of what we do as a city — we watch out for each and every citizen."

The council voted unanimously in favor of the move.

Dorner's rampage began Feb. 3, not far from City Hall, on the top floor of an Irvine condominium complex's parking structure. Newly engaged couple Monica Quan, 28, and Keith Lawrence, 27, were his first victims. Quan's father, LAPD Capt. Randal Quan, represented Dorner in a hearing that resulted in his being fired.

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Dorner also killed Riverside Police Officer Michael Crain, 34, and San Bernardino Sheriff's Deputy Jeremiah MacKay, 35, before eventually taking his own life after being surrounded in a Big Bear area cabin.

Although Irvine's involvement in the reward was not yet decided, Choi stood with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey, Irvine, Los Angeles and Riverside's police chiefs, and U.S. Marshal's Office and the FBI representatives at a Feb. 10 press conference where the reward was announced.

Choi now plans to use funds from the city's public safety budget.

"They don't need our $100,000, but this is more moral and ethical as the city where the crime began," he said.

Choi tapped Director of Public Safety David Maggard to represent the city and oversee the process of adding to the reward.

"The concept of the reward was simply to try and generate clues and find ways to start attaching resources to follow up on those types of clues in the hopes that someone might have an idea of who the suspect was who hadn't come forward yet," Maggard said about authorities' search before Dorner was named as a suspect. "And this might create a little bit of an extra push for them to do so, that was the general idea behind offering such an unprecedented reward in a very unusual circumstance."

The $1-million reward, which grew to $1.2 million during the search for Dorner, a 33-year-old U.S. Navy reservist, is possibly the biggest Southern California has had, according to the Los Angeles Times.